So how about dem Solaris games. Anyone actually a fan?
Camden Sanchez
I've occasionally made stupid Solaris 'Mechs for fun.
Bentley Hughes
It's a great bit of background, but your campaign has to either be solely about Solaris, or else the players see it maybe once an in game year due to travel. I end up using Judge Dredd progs as inspiration for dealing with riotous fans though.
Caleb Williams
I run the odd Solaris season, it can be a lot of fun. It's as much about stable management and skullduggery off the field, of course, as it is about dueling. Depending on the group, you may want to use an abstracted system like event cards instead of roleplaying it out with multiple teams and/or forcing all the players to be on the same team.
I wonder if I still have any of the ones I wrote up lying around? Lemme go check.
Chase Rivera
Got distracted building a paint/display shelf in my hobby room before my ADD meds kicked in again. Anyway, I found the box but not the cards.
Some samples of what I remember: "Outlaw tech: your team has attracted the attention of a (Regular/Veteran/Elite) tech. Write down his salary in the provided box; this must be paid once per round. Gain 35 Man-hours per week of tech labor at the listed skill. You may "overwork" the Tech, but each 5 man-hours counts as (5/10/15),000 extra C-Bills for your opponent if he attempts to steal this card, and a -1 on the Retention Roll. • At the end of every Month, roll 2D6. On a modified 2 or lower, the Tech moves on (reshuffle into the deck). On a natural 12, gain a Green Tech card for free. • At the end of any round, another player may attempt to steal the Tech by discarding a card and making a secret offer to the GM. If it equals or exceeds the current offer roll 2D6, +1 for every extra (5/10/15,000) CB pledged. On a 9+, he gains the services of the Tech.
Connor Allen
>LosTech (Minor/Standard/Major/Legendary) Gain access to 1 item from the Minor LosTech table, and an Entaglement(s). The player may view the Entanglement(s) before accepting by spending 5,000 CB. If he refuses, the GM may offer the item to other players next round at his discretion.
Minor Lostech is usually Prototype versions of anything up to 4t, or things like 2d6 FedCom Freezers or 2d6t of LT ammo/Ferro. LosTech is full-on versions of weapons under 4t, prototypes of larger ones and 'trons, doubled ammo/Freezers, 1d6 real DHS or the like. Major Lostech includes Endo frames and SL vintage heavy weapons and electronics. Legendary is a GM-selected honest-to-God intact chassis or something of equivalent value, but you wind up DEEP in the hole if you take it.
Entanglements are cards used to push players towards pledging to a faction or representing favors owed to benefactors - Mafia connections might give you an ERLL but demand that you throw a specific match, for example. Or VEST could give you a Pink-slip match against a new design.
Fedfags are everywhere and the FWL is nowhere to be found. Fix it.
Thomas Lee
>FedCom >Fed Suns >Second Star League
battletech fans are trully the plebest of the plebs
Oliver Wright
>that single steadfast TH loyalist
Zachary Torres
This poll is stupidly vulnerable to samefagging, you know. The probability of at least a few people voting FedSuns AND FedCom is pretty high.
Chase Hughes
damn, you're right time to rev up some Word of Blake votes
Aaron Jones
>MFW I'm the lone, sad CNC dude.
Jace Jones
Nah, it'd be much funnier to blow some minor shit faction way out in front. How about "chaos march nations?"
Ryan Adams
Nah, Corporations >We Shadowrun now
Henry Hall
What about "terran alliance"?
Jonathan Lewis
ALLIANCE STRONG
JAMES MCKENNA A DERP FACED SHIT
Parker Clark
CRASHING THIS POLL WITH NO SURVIVORS
Hunter Ross
Where my Dracs at?
Kayden Allen
>Alliance and WoB leading TERRA E R R A
Luis Gutierrez
>all those Blakists
Cooper Reyes
Daily reminder that Conrad Toyama did everything right.
Charles Lopez
In the post-jihad pre-DA era, how hard would it be for an independent world to set up a production line for primitive mechs and/or low-tech (quikscell-tier) combat vehicles? How hard would it then be to upgrade the primitive mech line to introtech?
Oliver Jones
Depends a lot on where the world is located and if it has any friends
Benjamin Cruz
>Depends a lot on where the world is located It's located out past the lyrans, a former RWR planet >if it has any friends Those it does not, it's kinda a bandit kingdom (I'm working on fleshing out the rim territories for an upcoming merc game)
Brayden Fisher
>In the post-jihad pre-DA era, how hard would it be for an independent world to set up a production line for primitive mechs and/or low-tech (quikscell-tier) combat vehicles? >In the former RWR 'Mechs would be hard, but doable; they'd probably need outside help of some kind, although if I recall correctly that David Xanatos expy was throwing around some serious cash buying up smaller firms and amassing private armies. I could certainly see some kind of post-CS/Blakist influence or another corp wanting a reliable source for SecurityMechs/IndustrialMechs out thataway.
>How hard would it then be to upgrade the primitive mech line to introtech? Definitely need outside help, plus a lot of cash. On the other hand, MixTech primitive chasses with modern engines, weapons, and armor shipped in from an outside source would be a lot cheaper and easier. That's how Randis and likely Lady Death both got set up with their lines.
Connor Turner
Derp, forgot vees: Qwikscell -tier vehicle plants are literally everywhere, in and out of the Periphery. All you'd need would be a bit of capital for the licensing fees and a few years to get set up; after that, you're in the green.
Either way, expect to get hit by pirates, a lot, as soon as your 'Mech line is really producing; even primitives are a huge draw, and it'd be hard to keep a lid on that kinda thing for long.
Levi Gray
I've been working on an AU setting in the early republic era with a lot of independent worlds. my rule of thumb is that vehicles are pretty much guaranteed after about 10 years of the same government, primitive mechs after 20-30 years and getting SFE tanks around the same time, roughly, with outside trade, (which would be unlikely for a bandit kingdom), or if there's some other factor. in your case, people restoring a ancient and dilapidated RWR mech factory to produce primitive models would be a doable reason. upgrading to introtech would definitely need either significant outside help, say from a medium periphery state or non-great-house IS faction (I suppose that maybe one of the ex-FWL states funding it to keep the lyrans on their toes is theoretically possible, if unlikely) mixtech semi-primitive stuff like is talking about would be much more reasonable, as might refitting some primitive mechs with more modern gear captured by the bandits who run the place (along the lines of the MAD-4H) anything above introtech would need some SERIOUS justification for domestic production (in my AU, there's exactly one world with that, and it's because the haseks are using it to build up a secret army outside of republic treaty jurisdiction) anyways, I would think that about one or two primitive mech lines and three or four tank lines would be about right for the rim territories by 3100-15 or so. maybe add a bug line by the 20s (bugs seem to be the easiest thing to build introtech-wise)
>Mince enough of the most tender fennel fronds to make 2 tablespoons, and mince enough of the bulb to make 1/4 cup; set both aside for the Fennel-Lemon Tartar Sauce.
>Coarsely chop the remaining fronds, stalks, and bulb, and place in a large (at least 8-quart) pot.
>Add lemon slices, 1/4 cup salt, and enough cold water to come within 3 inches of the top of the pot. Bring to a boil over high heat.
>While water is heating, set crabs on a rimmed baking sheet or tray, and put them in the freezer. (This dulls their senses to make handling them easier. The crab should be well chilled but not frozen; don't leave them in the freezer more than 30 minutes.) When water has come to a rolling boil, grab each crab securely at the back of its shell, and gently but swiftly drop it headfirst into the boiling water.
>Cover pot, and return water to a boil, reducing heat to medium if necessary to prevent water from boiling over. Cook crabs 18 to 20 minutes. Carefully drain. Clean crabs, and serve hot or chilled with Fennel-Lemon Tartar Sauce, Bloody Mary Cocktail Sauce, and Ginger Butter.
Austin Perry
...
Robert Green
This job never gets old.
Nathan Cruz
*joke, even
Fuck you, autocorrect.
Jackson Fisher
So what is this Against the Bot thing I see in the OP? I play Megamek, and it doesn't have any maintenance rolls or these other details.
Asher Richardson
Alright, thanks guys, I'm thinking two primitive mechs on different worlds, one SFE, one FCE and three ICE tanks total for the Rim Territories. I'm thinking a primitive rifleman and maybe an archer or maybe even an emperor
Jason Reyes
here
If you want suggestions for some possible designs to revive: The RWR designed the Phoenix, which is a bit of a shitter but exactly the kind of thing that the SLDF would just bomb the factory for and give up on. It would be fairly easy to upgrade with some modern-spec gear. If you do have a working vee plant, you could try for something like the Diesel Thunderbolt we did in 3063 - ICE or Fuel Cells, cheap and common weapons skewed towards ballistics, and a few stripped frames (maybe stolen "demilled" stuff that a salvage company is shipping out "for scrap" from the Republic?) with vehicle-grade armor. That's more of an outlaw yard thing than a factory line, but it'd be a good way to get ahold of some variety, or more intimidating rides without having to spend quite as much dosh
Also my mouse broke so replies will be a bit sparse for the nonce.
Ayden Wood
>see anons on /btg/ talk about how the FWL is big on combined arms warfare and has been for a long time >check out the FWL's line of tanks >it's practically the worst of any Successor State
Not trying to be rude but it surprised me. Even the Draconians have Demolishers and Manticores.
John Brown
Everybody has Demolishers and Manticores.
Luke Ortiz
You're not wrong but the Dracs also get the Narakumi (sp?) and other shit. The FWL gets hammered pretty bad on crap designs thanks to "Lol LGRs" and the way the FedCom got every vehicle that was remotely good between 3050 and 3145.
Austin Perez
Is that true? I was reading their field manuals and the Marik one didn't mention them. Where can I find a vehicle RAT for the FWL?
Daniel Russell
Maybe but the Dracs and for some reason even the Canopians manufacture the Manticore while the FWL doesn't. He's not wrong about the poor tanks lines they have.
Ethan Mitchell
As it should be. FWL is basically an NPC faction, so they're vehicles need to be generally crap.
Oliver Stewart
Lol too right m8
Nicholas Myers
This explains why TRO 3145 FedSuns is the worst of them.
Jose Scott
>the subtle weight shift onto the right leg as the king (queen) crab walks forward
It's the little things
Levi Gonzalez
No in the sequel they're the protagonist
Daniel Perez
Ontos comes in a solid normal version and a nasty lurm version. Burds like guntrucks, look at the Bulwark.
Luis Rodriguez
Rekt
Alexander Hall
Does anyone know where I'd be able to buy some metal Celestials (or any of the WoBbie designs, actually) in the EU.
Ral Partha Europe don't seem to have any of them.
David Ramirez
Plenty of places. FM Updates has one circa 3067, Brush Wars has two, one for Anton's Revolt in 3014-15, another for the Andurien Wars of the 3030s, Clan Invasion ones are in ER 3052 and 3062 FM 3085 has one for post Jihad former FWL states, and FM and ER 3145 both have one for the FWL/former states covering the DA.
Oliver Gray
>Clan Invasion ones are in ER 3052 and 3062 Actually, scratch that. Those two just have generic IS RATs as far as vehicles are concerned.
Carson Clark
Oh cool, I'll check them out.
Jose Jenkins
nova cuck detected
Bentley Ross
Tank production in general is an utter clusterfuck
Nicholas Gray
I'd hook you up m8 but my provider is in Britain and that's not in the EU anymore
Camden Sullivan
>clan homoerotic panther leading by 12% to the next
CLANS STRONK. PRAISE KERENSKY.
Christopher Cox
Well, your shipping rates are horrendous anyway.
Also, do you not wish to the glorious cause of Blake?
Brandon Morales
I voted best Clan but few seem to like it.
Cameron Reyes
Nova Cucks should have left the Combine as soon as possible. Don't know what insanity possessed them to try and reside in a culture utterly alien to them that hates nonconformity.
Ian Johnson
Bullshit mystics more concerned with the big black dragon than anything else.
At least the Spirit Cats are going old school to survive.
Kevin Hernandez
You need to use MekHQ.
Andrew Brown
Battlebump
Aaron Edwards
instead of just bumping why don't you bring up a topic?
Kevin Lewis
Anyone else have options to get decently priced Jihad-era mechs in western Europe?
Isaac Bailey
Sure, why not? How about a design challenge? Let's do one for Solaris dualing machines that can also operate on the battlefield
Nathan Young
I can't wait
Elijah Thomas
Can Battletech be made spooky, /btg/?
Levi Allen
Certainly. How spooky do you want to be? Regular everyday paranoia, THINGS MAN WAS NOT MEANT TO KNOW!, or Everyone with a cyborg body is just a MD waiting to get free?
Hunter Cook
Anything works, I'd say. I have heard that the in-universe science behind jump technology includes a bit of the second, for that matter
Connor Bennett
What if some prominent RotS characters are really MD? Sure they're supposed to die after a few years but they say the same thing about EINI and there have been characters with those that live for decades.
Ryder Morris
Yes, but it takes a lot of work and requires working outside of the 'Mechs. Put a couple Wraith Adepts or Zombie packs into a city and give the players anti-borg rifles, PA(L) and a couple BAP scouts; they have to find the Blakies before they kill all the target civvies. Use hidden movement and a couple trucks capable of generating Ghost Targets for extra fun. You want an atmosphere of frustration, a bit of gore, and rapidly-dwindling time/resources, in multiple scales. One where the 'Mechs are >almost< as scary as the shit the Blakie infantry is packing.
Cooper Jenkins
>X-COM terror mission, against Wobbies
I fucking love it.
Michael Thomas
>et's do one for Solaris dualing machines that can also operate on the battlefield Sure, I'm enough of an asshole for this. Clanners take an old PHX chassis and upgrade it to clanspec - and adding a partial wing. It's appallingly fast, hits like a fucking truck, and has plasma to fuck with TSM monkeys' heat. The engine got downgraded, but the only time this thing stops flying is when it kicks off another horizontal surface, and the Tarcomp and clan pilot compensate for most of the violent motion sickness it induces. L-AMS deals with Thunderbolt rounds and missile boats, and it can consistently choose engagement range with enough ammo and armor to survive the few hits that can land on a target jumping almost 300 meters in 10 seconds.
Michael Turner
I can't believe you've done this
Nicholas Gray
Basically I just wanted a Pixie that actually >acts< like a Valkyrie does in the series, including the switchable L-AMS/pulse laser in the head. (I'd add a quirk to that effect). It does take a HELL of a shot to use this thing effectively, and the explosive arms are not exactly ideal, but dear God it's evil.
As far as defending against it, I'd be playing with clusters of LB-X cannon (tens and twenties) or SBGRs and a tarcomp, looking to black out the pilot or force a knockdown roll and take off one of the arms. It's also really vulnerable to heat if you can catch it, since it doesn't have much margin on the weapons. Then there's the awful shit you can do with a cluster of Light-fives, Precision, and a Tarcomp.
Isaac Moore
>As far as defending against it, I'd be playing with clusters of LB-X cannon (tens and twenties) or SBGRs and a tarcomp That combo has actually been retconned into not working; LBXs only get tarcomp bonuses with solids, and a SBGR plain can't use one. So it's down to massed precision-5s for tarcomp use. Or artillery cannons. Those also work.
Jackson Edwards
Mmmmmm, Arty cannon. Also FASCAM, thinking about it, although mines would take quite a few rounds to get effective - even from a Bandersnatch.
I might also try something with flippy arms maybe VSPLs, and capped TC snubbies, thinking about it. The ranges on its weapons require it to get into knife-fighting range anyway, and you can alpha if it slows down and then cool off while it gets bouncy again.
Charles Martin
>play AtB >Get two pitch-black Chase scenarios in a row >20 turns of jumpjetting back four hexes and everything missing
Gavin Wright
How bad would the game break if you allowed C-RAM?
Basically think an AMS that could try to intercept artillery.
Jaxson Collins
not very badly. Artillery is a fairly minor factor in the game
Colton Rivera
Fair enough I suppose.
Brandon Kelly
Well, generally speaking Artillery's not that big a deal as long as you only play small games, or games that only feature 'Mechs, Vees, and Infantry.
If you move to Battalion or larger games, or incorporate ASFs, LAMs, and things with 9+ Jump artillery is one of the few equalisers to their transparent bullshittery.
If you do create and allow C-RAM, and you're playing large games, games with ASFs and LAMs and long Jumpers, enjoy your assrapings.
Evan Ortiz
t. Nation that has never been crushed by the might of the Star League Artillery Corps
Daniel Adams
>t. Nation that has never been crushed by the might of the Star League Artillery Corps I don't think that any nation actually was, come to think of it. The OA was beaten because the SLDF makes the SS look like the peace corps, the TC by orbital and nuclear bombardment, the MoC by beating them in a mech fight, and later on the RWR, which was again beaten mostly by mechs
James Bailey
Are plasma rifles cool?
in b4 "no, actually, they're quite hot"
Juan Williams
They're basically a PPC that also causes heat and MURDERS all conventional units. They're fucking amazing
Samuel Brown
The Capellans have an Urbanmech variant that carries a plasma rifle in place of the traditional AC/10. Because Urbanmechs are exclusively used for urban defense, see (they're simply too slow for any other role), which means you're literally never going to deploy it anywhere except your OWN cities, so obviously the sensible thing to do is equip it with a weapon that STARTS FIRES.
The plasma rifle's light weight means the mech can also carry a couple lasers as backup weapons, but you know if they could have figured out how to make a SRM-2 shoot custom warheads loaded with millions of plague-carrying fleas they would have spent the tonnage on that instead.
Carson Gonzalez
Amazing.
Jace Torres
>so obviously the sensible thing to do is equip it with a weapon that STARTS FIRES. The liaos aren't exactly known for placing a high value on the lives of their subjects
Juan Jackson
There are people who actually take the Capellans seriously.
Michael Walker
I once made a Liao-fluffed SecurityMech type industrialmech that was fission-powered and equipped with a searchlight and a pair of small pulse lasers. Intended for nothing more than helping to keep dirty peasants off of your manor's lawn. The fission engine was for A) lulz and B) if somehow the dirty peasants do somehow breach the thing there's a chance it could give them all radiation poisoning.
Ian Adams
Don't forget that hits to Plasma Rifle ammo don't cause an explosion.
